ICTC: Tech center writer introduces new principal

Indiana County Technology Center has a new principal, an experienced educator and principal with a college- and career-readiness focus who says he wants to celebrate the school’s many successes and initiatives.

“There are truly terrific things happening at ICTC in all of the program areas,” said Michael McDermott, former principal at Blacklick Valley High School; assistant principal and principal at West Shamokin High School; and teacher at Penns Manor High School.

“Even though technology and industry demands are constantly changing, ICTC’s programs are keeping pace, step per step, with these changes. … So, I naturally want to promote these many positives including our programs’ innovative and up-to-date practices, our achievements and awards, and the school’s enduring educational value.”

McDermott, who lives with his wife and three children in the Nanty Glo area, has transitioned into the new position with much of the same philosophy that prompted him to first pursue a career in education.

“I enjoy talking with students as they are working on their projects and having them explain the details of what they are doing,” said McDermott, who has regularly visited each program area in his first weeks to make connections with faculty and students.

Interactions in a busy and productive career and technology center, however, can be tricky for those in professional dress, according to McDermott, who said he’s “learning not to wear dark colors when visiting some of the program areas, especially Masonry and Collision Repair Technology,” where dust is a normal byproduct of “impressively skilled students” developing in promising career fields. Through the dust, McDermott says he has clearly noticed the positivity and enthusiasm of ICTC’s students and “how the students and staff take a sincere pride in their program areas, in the work they are doing, and in the intensive learning that arises from their work.”

It’s clearly a positive match with McDermott’s focus for ICTC.

“We are all working together to achieve the same goals: Our educational focus is preparing students to be college- and career-ready,” McDermott said. “I want to be able to assist our students and staff in reaching their chosen goals.”

It’s that willingness to help, “in any way I can,” McDermott says, that is the most important and enduring feature that people should understand about him as he progresses with ICTC through the rest of the school year and beyond.